Trouble-shooting the Smart Content Pane

DAZ 3D is pleased to announce a new, improved Content Management Service (CMS) is available in the public version of the DAZ Studio Pro BETA - version 4.6.3.29! Click here to learn more.

Trouble-shooting the Smart Content Pane (DAZ Studio 4.6 or later)

First make sure you are running the latest release of DAZ Studio. (4.6.3.52). You can check this in DAZ Studio under Help -> About DAZ Studio. This number will be listed in the upper left hand corner.If you are not running DS 4.6.3.52, please upgrade. You can find this installer in the Install Manager under Ready to Download, Product Updates.

Please make sure you install the PostgreSQL CMS and the PostgreSQL CMS From Valentina CMS Conversion.You can find these in the Install Manager when searching for "sku::18869" without the quotes. If they are already installed, uninstall and re-install.

Make sure DAZ Studio is not running during this process and make sure CMS is running during this process.

If your Database was corrupt so the Conversion did not work correctly, and you open DAZ Studio and your smart content pane is not properly set up after following the above steps.

If you are running the 64 bit version of DAZ Studio, there is no need to install the 32 bit version of PostgreSQL.By installing the 32 bit version, it is automatically uninstalling the 64 bit version. In this process, it must stop the CMS. If the CMS is stopped, then tries to install the 32 bit with it stopped, it in some cases, this crashes the Install Manager. And causes the Smart Content to not work correctly.

Trouble-shooting the Smart Content Pane (DAZ Studio 4.5 or earlier)

Normally, the Smart Content Pane works fine in DAZ Studio 4.5. This article is to help users who have reason to believe that the Smart Content Pane is not working correctly in their installation. If the service is not working, it may be necessary to uninstall DAZ Studio 4 and the DAZ Content Management Service, then to re-install DAZStudio 4.x (which automatically re-installs the DAZ Content Management Service). There is additional support further on in this article for Mac Users to help with starting and stopping the DAZ Content Management Service.

The Smart Content Pane in DAZ Studio 4 relies upon the CMS (Content Management Service). If the Content Management Service is not working correctly, then you will not have the use of the Smart Content Pane. You may be able to see and open the Pane, but you won't be able to see thumbnails in the Pane.

IS THE SMART CONTENT PANE WORKING CORRECTLY?Verify whether or not you can see thumbnails in the Smart Content Pane. To do this correctly, do the following. Select the Genesis figure. The Figure should be highlighted in orange in the Scene Pane. This means that it is selected. Now go to the Smart Content Pane. Click on 'Files' and then 'All.' They will be shaded in orange if you've done this. Now look on the right side of the Smart Content Pane. If you see thumbnails for content options, then the Smart Content Pane and the CMS (Content Management Service) are working correctly. If you see no such thumbnails, then the CMS is not working correctly.

Keep in mind that not all content will show up in the Smart Content Pane. In general, content created before summer of 2011 will not show up in the Smart Content Pane. This is because content requires metadata (indexing) to appear in the Smart Content Pane. Older content items were made before the creation of the Smart Content Pane and so they will not show up in the Smart Content Pane, unless the particular product was recreated with metadata.

If only some content that should be in the Smart Content Pane doesn't appear, but other content does, you can be sure that the DCMS is working. You may need to re-import the data for the new content you've installed to get it to appear in the Smart Content Pane.

Finally keep in mind that if you have not downloaded and run the 'Genesis Starter Essentials' installer or the 'Genesis 2 Female Essentials,' you will not have the Genesis base figure or the Genesis 2 Female or the handful of add-ons provided with Genesis and Genesis 2 Female, and none of these items will appear in the Smart Content Pane for the reason that they have not been installed. Make sure you have downloaded and run this installer provided with the other installers for DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro.

START THE DAZ CONTENT MANAGEMENT SERVICESometimes, it is simply a matter of re-starting the DCMS (DAZ Content Management Service). This service is an application that runs separately from DAZ Studio 4.5. In order for the Smart Content Pane to work correctly, the DCMS (or simply CMS) must be running. Check to see whether the DCMS is running. If it is not running, thenstart it. If you need to re-start the DCMS, make sure to stop (quit) DAZ Studio first before you do this. Then launch DAZ Studio after the service is re-started. DCMS in WindowsIn Windows, open the Task Manager by pressing 'CTRL + ALT + DEL.' Choose the Task Manager and click on the 'Services' Tab. You can click the top of the column name to put all the services in alphabetical order to make it easier to search through the column. Look for the DAZ Content Management Service.

If the status is running, then you should jump down to the next step. If the status is stopped, then right-click on the service and choose to start it. Launch (or re-launch) DAZ Studio. It is important that your user account be an admin account. If it is not, you may not be able to use DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro correctly. If the lack of an admin account rights is preventing you from starting the DCMS, you will need to resolve that first before continuing or resuming these trouble-shooting steps.

If you are able to re-start the DCMS, but the Smart Content Pane is still not working, proceed to the next step.

DCMS in MAC OSThe Smart Content Pane depends upon a separately running service called the DAZ Content Management Service. If this service is not running, then the Smart Content Pane will not work correctly. It is possible to use some utilities to start or stop the DAZ Content Management Service. It is not recommended that you use 'ForceQuit' to stop DCMS.

You can check the status of the service in your Mac's Activity Monitor. The Activity Monitor should be here:

MacHD:Applications:Utlities:Activity Monitor

Make sure to show all users services.If you see that the DCMS (DAZ Content Management Service) is not running, you should launch it. There's a correct way to start and stop this service on the Mac. Browse to this folder:MacHD:Library:DAZ 3D:Content Management Service:Utilities

If the Service is not running, use the 'Start' option above. You can use the Activity Monitor to verify that it has started and is running. If you verify that the DAZ Content Management Service is running, you should launchDAZ Studio 4.x. If Studio was running while you did this, quit and re-launch DAZ Studio. Now check the Smart Content Pane in Studio 4 to verify that it is working.

It is important that you are logged into a Mac user account with full admin rights or else you will not be able to use DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro correctly. If you are not in a user account with full admin rights, you will need to resolve that issue in your Mac OS before resuming these trouble-shooting steps.

If you are able to start DCMS, but the Smart Content Pane is still not working, proceed to the next step.

RE-IMPORT THE METADATASometimes you can simply re-import the metadata for the content database and you will see your content items again. To manage this data, click on the 'Content DB Maintenance…' option. You may need to use this option a few times.

This is how to access the 'Content DB Maintenance…' option in DAZ Studio 4.5. Go to the Content Library Pane (WINDOW –> Panes –> Content Library). In the Pane, find the 'Active Pane Options' button which is on the top. It will be on either the top left or top right, depending upon when the pane is docked. The button icon has four horizontal lines and a triangle.

Click on the 'Active Pane Options' button in the Content Library Pane. A menu will appear. Find 'Content DB Maintenance…' in the menu and click on it.

You will now see several options in the Content Database Maintenance Window. First choose 'Reset Database' and then click 'Accept.' It may not appear to do anything. Return to the Cotnent DB Maintenance Window and this time check 'Re-Import Metadata…' Check the box for 'Show Content as New' in the lower left and click 'Accept.' You should see another window appear with all the metadata for the various content items listed in it. Press 'Accept' below. Now you should see a progress bar asDAZ Studio re-imports and thus rebuilds the database. It may take several moments to do this. If you see the progress bar flash very quickly or if it appears that nothing has happened, it is likely the database is broken and will need to be rebuilt as explained below.

After the data files have been reimported, check the Smart Content Pane. If you still do not see any content, then proceed to the next step below.

REBUILD THE METADATA DATABASEThis procedures removes all the current database files and then recreates the database by re-importing. You can either remove the database files or place them elsewhere (outside of the database folder) so that DCMS cannot access them. If the files are corrupt, then deleting them is really the only option. Deleting the files means the content database will need to be rebuilt and any custom settings will be eliminated. This does not include custom presets and files made in the "Content Library" Pane which will be unaffected.

User-created files will not be deleted, but the index info for them will be deleted. They will remain in the Content Library Pane, if created there, but will not show up and will not be able to show up in the Smart Content Pane. If you have not created any of your own presets or do not care whether custom (user-created) presets show up in the Smart Content Pane, then this will not be a problem for you. This procedure does *not* require you to re-install your purchased content.

1) First, turn off (quit) DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro.

2) Turn off DAZ Content Management Service so it is not running. This is the correct way to turn it off

3) PLEASE NOTE. This step is unnecessary, unless you've already gone through this procedure without success.

Uninstall the DAZ Content Management Service using the uninstaller for it. The uninstaller is in the "uninstallers" folder inside of the Content Management Service folder. (Mac: Applications\DAZ 3D\Content Management Service\Uninstallers; Win: ...Program Files\DAZ 3D\Content Management Service\Uninstallers)

4) In this step, you will delete the DCMS database files. Then browse to the folder with the database files. This is the default path for the database files for DCMS. If you chose a different path for it during installation, then browse to that folder.

By default the 'programdata' folder is invisible in Windows. You can open it by going to the 'start' or run window, typing '%programdata%' without the quotes and then pressing 'Enter' on the keyboard.

In the 'databases' folder, you will find these files:

ContentDB.blbContentDB.datContentDB.indContentDB.vdbmaster.vdb

Remove the above files and place them elsewhere for safe-keeping. PLEASE NOTE: If you have chosen to install the DCMS (DAZ Content Management Service) to two or more locations previously on your hard drive, you will have two or more database folders. You must find and remove *all* of them in order for this fix to work. If you leave some of the files on the hard drive, this fix may not work. This is another reason that we recommend that you use the default path for the DCMS. Please note this is the path for the DCMS, not the path for your actual content.

It is also possible to delete the above files, but this is not recommended. By removing the files, you gain the same benefit, but can put back the files if this procedure doesn't work. It can take as much as an hour or more to regenerate the database information for large content libraries.

5) Install the latest release version of DAZ Studio 4.6 (4.6.1.39 at the time of this writing). This also re-installs the Content Management Service.

If you use Install Manager to install Studio 4.6, instead of installing DAZ Studio, there is a CMS installer in the same folder where Install Manager is installed. You can run this or simply re-install Install Manager. If you already have the latest build of Studio installed, you can skip this step.

7) Launch Studio. The Content Management Service should work now. This assumes that the issue was a corrupted or broken database. This method doesn't resolve issues caused by interference from third-party software or Windows security settings.

If the above method doesn't work, you can move the database files back to their original location and save yourself the time of having Studio re-create the data. Only move them back if the above method doesn't work. If it does work, then you know that information in those database files was corrupted and prevented DCMS from working correctly.

8) Studio should re-import the metadata automatically when you re-launch it. You can also manually direct Studio to re-import the metadata in 'Content DB Maintenance...' --> Re-Import Metadata --> Accept.